Tag: faith
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stepping out in faith…
Biblical Texts: Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56 Can’t we all just get along? You’ve probably have heard others say this before…perhaps you’ve said it yourself. If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time you’ve surely thought it. And there’s certainly a Christian wisdom to this wish. At the start of the Sermon on the…
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persisting in prayer…
Biblical Texts: Genesis 18v20-32, Luke 11v1-13 Jesus prays. That might seem like an odd statement, but throughout Luke’s gospel, he tells us repeatedly that Jesus withdraws from everything that’s going on, and he prays. We don’t know how long it took, but after a while his disciples asked him to teach them to do the…
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not hearers only…
Biblical Text: Matthew 13v1-9, 18-23 A couple of years ago, while we were still living in Durham, I joined a thousand or so others, and ran a 5k through the city. If you’d been near the finish, you might have caught a glimpse of me, trying to stay upright as I careened down the hill…
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go and do this…
Biblical Text: Luke 10v25-37 A man stands up and asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What does it say in the law?” Comes the reply. “Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind…and your neighbour as yourself,” says the man. “Good…
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small parts of a bigger story
Biblical Texts: Psalm 85v7-11, Luke 1v57-66, 80. YouTube Link (from 15:45 onwards) If I had a display behind me as I preached today, I would put up a picture of a mosaic. If you haven’t seen one before, a mosaic is a picture made up of lots of small pieces of tile or stone. They…
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stepping into the light…
Bible Passage: John 3:16-21 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 is perhaps the most well known Bible verse. And with good reason too. It’s a succinct summary of the gospel message. But…
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failure is not terminal
Biblical Text: Luke 41v13 I imagine we’ve all come into a room, or a gathering, maybe a few minutes later than everyone else, only to realise we have no idea what’s going on. There’s already an in-joke, and you are completely lost. Speaking of being lost, I had that experience while watching an episode of…
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turn away from sin
Biblical Texts: Psalm 51, John 8v1-11 ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.Turn away from sin, and be faithful to Christ.’ For years the church has set aside today, Ash Wednesday, as the beginning of the Lenten season. We receive the sign of the cross, a sign of both death and…
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Spiritual but not religious?
Biblical Text: James 1v19-27 Not too long ago, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the phrase, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” If you asked someone what they thought about church, that was often the answer you got. There were plenty of reasons for this answer. Sometimes people would say it because they had lost faith in…
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a diverse faith
Biblical Text: Luke 2v22-40 What was the last thing you truly looked forward to? That you waited for expectantly? Christmas has just been and gone. Perhaps there was a particular present you were hoping to get, or to give. Or perhaps you’ve had the experience of waiting for a baby, whether yours or someone else’s.…